“Pearl Brewery: Now Serving Sustainable Energy On Tap!”
An aerial shot of the Pearl Brewery shows of it's collection of solar panels
San Antonio’s Pearl Brewery has officially completed the largest solar panel project in the state of Texas. And since everything is bigger in Texas, you know it’s gotta be GINORMOUS! We recently went down there to check it out, and I was pretty impressed.
The Brewery, in business from 1883, through Prohibition, and into a new millennium, once supplied Texas with Pearl and Pabst beer. Today, as San Antonio’s greenest community center, it’s a place where you can eat, live, work, visit, shop, learn and relax. The Pearl Brewery joins the new extension of San Antonio’s famous River Walk, and is home of Aveda Institute SA, Center of Food for the Americas, Farm to Table Cafe and so much more.
Solar panels line the top of San Antonio's Pearl Brewery
The day that we visited, it was sweltering hot. In fact, I felt like I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion. Thank baby Jesus for Texas Farm to Table Cafe! Not only did they hydrate us, but they also filled our bellies with organic goodness. After an mmmm tasty light lunch, we were ready for our tour!
The Brewery’s “Full Goods” building, which once served as the main processing warehouse for all exports, is today a dynamic community hub that employs 200 kilowatt solar panels atop its amazing 67,000 sq ft roof! This generates 1/4 of the energy needed to power the entire building! Aside from that, the building has a rainwater recapturing/harvesting system, and Big Ass Fans (That’s actually the name of the company that designed the fans) that provide 25x the airflow of standard industrial ceiling fans—Talk about keeping cool Texas style!
Big Ass Fans provide 25x more airflow than conventional fans
The Full Goods Building is now an educational venue that showcases and celebrates renewable energy. Visitors and students can actually view a Real Time Display of the current power being generated. I was dazzled by the synergy of technology and environmental consciousness utilized to create such a beautifully constructed center.
I think the Pearl Brewery is beckoning the rest of us to follow. It has quickly become a shining example of what the rest of Texas can accomplish. The center has seamlessly maintained the honorable quality and history of the site while inventing a fresh identity.If you wish to learn more about solar/sustainable energy you should definitely pay a visit.
Visit The Pearl!
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